Generally, knives having blades extending from a handle parallel with a longitudinal axis of the handle are known in the art. Other knives have been described that include a uniquely shaped blade extending from the handle. Many of these knives are designed for a particular cutting function. By way of example, a prior knife described in U.S. Pat. Application Publication No. 2010/0146792A1 is particularly well suited for skinning an animal and includes spreading members disposed at the forward most portion of a knife blade to spread apart two portions of an animal hide when skinning an animal. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,987 describes a knife particularly well suited for skinning and cutting animal carcasses.
Other prior devices describe knives that apply cutting forces utilizing the wrist as a pivot point, rather than utilizing the strength of the user's forearm, triceps, biceps and shoulder muscles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,404 (at least at col. 10, lines 25-39) describes a knife that utilizes the hand or wrist as the pivot point for the blade, thus requiring a force to be applied on the handle near the wrist. There is a continued need for an ergonomic knife that reduces the force applied near the user's wrist while effectively providing a cutting force to the blade.